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A Guide to seeing “Avatar” in several formats
posted by
moviebuff82
on
January 4, 2010 at 3:45 pm
With all the different versions of “Avatar” out right now, it’s a little confusing as to which provides the best experience.
This article in the Los Angeles Times goes over the pros and cons of each format.
You might have opened the newspaper to find a two-page spread advertising “Avatar” in its many theater formats and wondered what the heck the difference is. There’s the standard non-3-D version (pass!), RealD, Dolby Digital and IMAX. The final three are the leading competitors in the battle to add depth dimension to movie theater screens.
Comments (12)
Saw it in the IMAX at Veterans 24 (which also happens to be DLP equipped according to some pre-show ads) & it is indeed “immersive”…the backs of my ears started aching a bit, but a small sacrifice for the ULTIMATE Avatar experience!
Once again, I will repeat for the hundreth time. Who cares. Always have been and ALWAYS will be a FILM man. 35, 70, IMAX (not that digital crap). I am not and never will be on the digital bandwagon, even though I do run 3 of them at my current job.
Thanks for the LA times info on 3-D Avatar. I will try to see It in San Francisco at a true IMAX 3-D screen the former Sony/Loews now AMC Metreon. The large Castro Theatre in SF was to have Avatar in 3-D but changed things at the last minute to a boring ‘Nine’. They have It booked for 4/5 weeks. ‘Nine’ is dying a slow death on the big Cinemascope® digital screen the Castro Theatre. I think they are going to pull it soon. As ‘Avatar’ is still the number one film three weeks in a row 2-D or 3-D I think the Castro wishes they had booked the 3-D ‘Avatar’ film all are going to see. It’s sad in San Francisco we lost our distibutor for the LA Times paper in the SF Bay Area. I liked reading the movie section. Strange in LA you can get the SF Chronicle in some newspaper stores but in SF we have no LA newspaper. Now the ‘Castro’ has the new Disney 3-D print of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ booked soon, lets hope they don’t change there mind at the last minute. The 2-D preview for ‘Alice’ was shown at the ‘Castro’ at the start of ‘Nine’ and got more applause then the main feature did. People will love this new Disney film at a Imax 3-D or regular 3-D Theatre. Thanks again to the LA Times for telling us about the 3-D format wars. Soon Technicolor will join the bandwagon with 3-D film.
Note on the 3-D versions:
-REAL-D/Dolby Digital 3-D versions are in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio
-IMAX version is in a 1.78:1 open matte aspect ratio that closer to Cameron’s intended ratio
I saw it in the matted 2.40:1 format and it looked great, despite some matting reducing the 3-D effects.
Saw it in Real-D, and it was in 1.78:1 where I saw it and it looked FANTASTIC in 3d, I thought only the 2D DLP, and film version were the only ones in 2.40:1. This must be probably due to the projectionist, cause where I saw it in REAL-D, it was 1.78
Depending on the location’s screen type, certain digital 3-D playdates got 1.78-formatted ‘prints’.
The 35mm prints are fantastic!Even James Cameron thinks it’s the best any of his films have looked on film.
It is being overlooked because of the 3D but it truly does look great in 35mm! You can see fine details and color missing from dark resolution starved 2k digital 3D presentations.
I love the 3D in Avatar but i did not drink the cool aide so i wish the 35mm would get more respect!
This LA writer says to pass on one of the best looking 35mm films ever!
in a while a
the week after it opened I saw it in RealD 3D Sony 4k at the AMC in Rockaway…it was crowded. I went to see it in theater #7, right next to the Imax theater. If I’d went to the IMAX showing, the projection would’ve been sharper and the sound louder. Avatar made great use of 3D and also innovative storytelling.
For all you naysayers out there who thought this movie wouldn’t make it or its intended release format would be a dud, James Cameron is king of the world, again. :)
The comments are more informative than the article.
saw it in 3D and o boy was it a great movie, loved it…
but i heard the video game is not that good, funny how they can make beautiful movies but when it comes to games, their AI is just to weak, i wonder why!!!!
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Both NBC’s “Tonight Show” and CBS’s “late Show” hosts made mention last night about ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN BOX OFFICE RECEIPTS in such a short period of time since the picture opened last week. Wow!